“James Potter has caught the snitch!” The announcer’s voice boomed everywhere. “Puddle Mere United wins the Quiddich World Cup!”

The crowd burst into cheers. It was so loud that it felt like earthquakes had erupted all around me.

My team and I flew down only to be surrounded by the rest of my teammates, fans, and screaming girls.

“Congratulations, James.” “Nice catch, Jamie.” “That was awesome!” I heard many different voices yelling at me.

I found myself thanking all of the voices (even though I didn’t know who they belonged to).

“OMG! James you are so HOT!” I heard one girl say.

“Thanks,” I chuckled

“Will you go out with me?” I heard another girl yell.

I cracked a smile, but didn’t answer. I know it was wrong, but I didn’t have the guts to turn her down. (I know. I know. I’m a wimp.)

I was being pushed into our tent, but I didn’t notice it. I was scooping the crowd for a certain girl. All of a sudden I caught a glimpse of red. “Lily!” I called.

“James!” I heard her faint reply.

I broke free from my teammates’ grip and started to weave toward Lily.

“James!” “Come back!” “Where are you going?”

I ignored my friends’ cries for me to come back and concentrated on finding my love. I couldn’t really see Lily, but I kept my eyes on her bright, red hair. Suddenly, the red disappeared. “NO!” I yelled, stopping and looking all around me for her. Then I saw my target again.

“Lily!” I yelled again.

“James!” she yelled. “I’m over here!” her reply was much louder this time.

When I finally got to her, I took her hands in mine and looked into a pair of bright emerald green eyes. Looking at Lily, everything around me faded away. It was just she and I.

“Nice catch,” she said shyly.

“Thanks.” I smiled at her, showing her my pearly whites.

She replied with a shy smile

“So, you wanna go out with me?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said enthusiastically. ”I’d love to.”

“Cool.” I closed the space between us in one step and brought my lips down on hers. While my hands were letting go of hers, going on her waist, pulling her closer to me, her hands were snaking up my neck. I don’t think she noticed all of my sweat, or the fact that I was way taller than her.

Suddenly, it started raining………rose petals?

And I woke up. I opened my eyes to find my bed in the middle of the room, and to see my best mate, Sirius, humming a tune and throwing rose petals at me while skipping around my bed, grinning like a maniac,

“Padfoot, what are you doing?” I asked, my eyes following Sirius’ every move.

“Here comes the bride. Stuffed, fluffed, and wide. Here comes the groom. His hair’s like a broom,” sang Sirius.

I stared at him. “That doesn’t sound familiar. Is it muggle?”

“Yup,” he answered, smiling proudly. “Moony taught it to me and I made some adjustments to it.”

“That may have been the worst mistake of my life,” Remus complained, lifting his head from the pillow and dropping it back down.

“Oh stop whining, Moony,” I said.

His head shot up like a rocket and he turned to face me and said, “You didn’t have to listen to Sirius skip around your bed, smiling like an idiot, and singing that song at the top of his lungs for the past half an hour! I’m surprised your ‘love’ didn’t come up here and hex him! And what’s even more surprising, is that YOU didn’t wake up!”

“Calm down.” I was surprised. Moony usually never raises his voice at us.

Apparently, that was the go sign. He started a lot of questions that didn’t make sense. “What’s her name? Is she a good kisser? How old is she? Is she your age? Does she have any cute friends? Can you introduce her to me? And mate, I don’t think she’s really that pretty.”

What the hell? “What are you talking about?” I was really mixed up.

Sirius smiled, pointed to my chest, and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.

I looked down to my hands and found them clutching a pillow. “Idiot!” I yelled while throwing the pillow on the ground and getting out of my bed.

I heard his bark-like laugh and I smiled.

I shuffled over to Remus’ bed and pulled the blanket from underneath him, making him fall. Then I bent down to his ear, cupped my hands around my mouth, and yelled,” Wake up!”

Moony jumped up and proceeded to punch me in the shin. So while I was hopping around on one foot, clutching my beautifully bruised shin, Moony got up, put his blanket back on his bed, walked over to me, and pushed me over.

“Where’s Peter?” I asked, scowling and wincing at the same time (if that’s possible).

“He went down to the Great Hall after waking up by Sirius and listening to him sing his song about six times. He was lucky.”

“Why?”

“Because he got to leave.”

“Well, why couldn’t you?”

“Sirius wouldn’t let me!”

“Oh.” I walked over to the bathroom and pounded on the door, “Sirius! Get your arse out of the bathroom! You’re not the only one who needs to go! Me and Moony need to go too!”

She pushed me away and said, “Absolutely NOT!” Lily picked that very moment to look across the table at Sirius. Her face immediately scrunched up in disgust. “Gross! Geez, Black, haven’t you ever heard of manners? Ugh! Potter, tell your weird friend to-GROSS! Not you too!” Lily had looked at me while I was stuffing my face.

I swallowed and asked, “What? I’m hungry.”

“You look like you haven’t eaten for days!”

“Well, I haven’t eaten for hours. Does that count?” I asked with a big smile.

“Ugh! I’m leaving! GoodBYE!” she yelled. “And good riddance!” she muttered under her breath.

“Hey, Lily,” said Alice, getting up. “Wait for me. If I watch them eat any longer, I think my breakfast will come back up.” She added, looking at me, Sirius, and Peter eat, and shuddered. Lily and Alice grabbed their books and ran out of the hall.

Me and Sirius looked at each other with an expression on our faces that asked ‘what?’ We shrugged and went back to our food.

When we all had finished eating, Sirius, Peter, Remus, and me walked out of the Hall and into our Transfiguration class.

When Professor McGonagall enter the room, everybody sat down in their seats and shut up.

“Now class, today we will be transfiguring our pets into water goblets.” With a flick of her wand, the windows opened, and owls started to fly in.

I was watching all the owls when I saw one that caught my eye.

“Tiff!” I called.

Tiffany-Christal, my snow-white owl, flew to me and hooted happily,

When I smiled and started to stroke her feathers, Lily turned around.

“What a nice owl. Is she yours?” she asked, also stroking Tiff.

I nodded and asked her about her owl.

“His name is Nibbles.” She said. When I got a confused look on my face, she quickly added, “Only because when I bought him, he nibbled on my finger.”

“Oh. I see.”

“What’s the name of your owl?”

“Tiffany-Christal. I call her Tiffany or Tiff.”

Lily smiled and giggle escaped from her lips.

I frowned. “What?” I demanded. “What’s so funny?” Tiffany hooted angrily. “Yeah,” I said to Tiff. “Don’t you like her name?” I demanded, looking back at Lily. “You think it’s funny, don’t you?” I was getting madder and Lily’s face was getting redder.

“Sorry,” she gasped. “I’m sorry. It’s a nice name. A very nice name.” She giggled again and buried her face in her hands.

“What?” I exclaimed again. “ Can’t a guy have an owl named Tiffany-Christal?”

She motioned for me to wait, so I leaned back in my chair with my hands folded across my chest.

Meanwhile, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Alice were watching us quietly.

When Lily finally stopped laughing, she looked at me and said, “Oh, a guy can have an owl named Tiffany-Christal, but you can’t.”

I was confused. “Why not?”

“Come ON, Potter,” she rolled her eyes. “You can’t be THAT thick.”

I just blinked.

She sighed, “You’re a Marauder. The King of Pranks. Every girl in Hogwarts wants you.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but before I got to say anything, she quickly added, “Except me.”

I closed my mouth.

“What do you think would happen to your reputation if everybody found out that the name of your owl is Tiffany-Christal?”

I frowned, “Well, I’m sorry that I ever let Kat name my owl.” I think I sounded snobby, but I didn’t care.

That wiped the smile off her face. “Who’s Kat?” she wondered.

“Why?” I smiled and leaned forward. “Are you jealous?”

Her eyes widened as she realized what she said. “N-no,” she stuttered and straightened up. “I was just curious.”

I also sat up. “Well, if you’re JUST curious…”

“Yeah. What kind of a name is Kat?

This comment got me really mad, but before I was able to respond, Professor McGonagall asked for everybody to sit down and be quiet. I told Lily that I would tell her later and she turned around.

McGonagall wrote the spell and counter-spells on the board and told everybody it’s a nonverbal spell. Many kids groaned-including Sirius and me. But before letting us start, McGonagall demonstrated the spell for us on her own owl. Everybody was awed.

Before I tried the spell out myself, I watched Lily and Sirius do it.

Watching Sirius was actually kinda funny. He squinted his eyes halfway shut and tilted his head to the left (as if that would help). When he did the spell, he poked his wand into the air and looked as if he had smelled something fowl. I started to laugh, but stopped immediately when McGonagall glared at me.

Lily turned around, either to tell me to be quiet, or to see what I was laughing about, so a pointed to Sirius, who was still holding his position.

She started to laugh too, but was interrupted by McGonagall, “Is something funny, Ms. Evans?”